I wrote this in order to give Australians an idea of one of their nearest neighbours. Solomon Islands is a country in which we have a strong military/police presence.
THE
ARCHITECTURE OF SOLOMON ISLANDS
Australians know
very little about one of their nearest neighbours despite the fact that since
2000, when the country descended into disorder and armed conflict, they have
been contributing substantially to the financial and personnel deployment
rallied to stabilise the country under the auspices of the Regional Assistance
Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). A look at the building of Solomon Islands
tells us much about its history and current plight, the forms of which will be
only too familiar to students of postcolonialism.
Missionaries,
eager to establish their own concept of family life, encouraged Solomon Island
women and men to live together under the one roof with their children.
Traditionally Solomons women and men had lived in separate communal dwellings.
Children lived with the women. In some areas (Solomon Islands has huge language
variation and differing cultural practices) uninitiated males lived in an
isolated lodge while they progressed towards acceptance as adults. It would be
interesting to assess how this shift in living arrangements affected the status
of Solomon Islands women whose oppression was and is heavy.
Contemporary leaf house – Western Province.
The men’s communal
houses were intended to be more impressive, securing sacred artefacts which
maintained the physical and metaphysical welfare of the clan. In general such
men’s houses are open plan, of various plain shapes - rectangular to circular,
up to two hundred square metres, with a high-pitched roof for coolness and
storage. This feature has been maintained in contemporary Solomons building of
all types, sometimes elaborated by mansarding.
Paramount Chief’s House – Malaita Province
A fire was lit in
a crude central hearth for cooking and to provide smoke to deter insects
(malaria is a big problem in the Solomons). Many examples have small openings
to act as windows for observation and ventilation as in this ovoid house from
Choiseul Province.
As can be seen in the photographs, the
walls and roof were made of panels and thatching of woven rattan and other long
fibres lashed together. The building frame was sago palm or other light wood,
also joined by fibre lashing. The structure sat on beaten earth into which
supports had been driven to some degree. On the Polynesian islands of Rennell
and Bellona (most of Solomon Islands is Melanesian) the floor was shallowly
excavated and covered with rocks which were then raised to ground level at the sides to form a kind of
bastioning in the place of walls.
Interior of Chief’s House - Rennell and Bellona Province
Matting provided
some relief from the stones.
The first European
buildings were the several forts erected by the early Spanish explorers sailing
across the Pacific from the Spanish colony in Peru. These were Mendana in 1567
and again in 1595. Mendana’s Chief Pilot of the 1595 expedition, the Portuguese
Quiros, led his own expedition in 1606 with Torres after whom the Strait is
named (Torres fled Quiros’ leadership). Torres made the difficult passage
between Australian and New Guinea – the strait named after him - on his retreat
to the Philippines. The animosity
of the locals and disease thwarted the colonising and evangelising ambitions of
these settlements. These earliest European building efforts were manifest
failures.
More missionaries
and traders followed three hundred years later when Europeans rediscovered the
Solomons. They assembled mission buildings and stores from local and imported
timber. Locals helped with thatching and fibre cladding. In 1896 the first
British Resident Commissioner’s house was built on Tulagi Island which had been
bought from a local chief. Tulagi is in what is now the Central Island Province
of Solomon Islands. The Residency was a leaf house situated to advantage on a
hill with wonderful views of the harbour and surrounding small islands. It and
its successors were known as Haus Numba
Wan. On a clear day the Honiara region of the large island of Guadalcanal
could be glimpsed in the distance. After the Second World War the capital was
moved from Tulagi to Honiara to take advantage of the infrastructure abandoned
by the American forces.
A
glimpse of a Nissen hut in Honiara – remnant of the American occupation
Chinese trade
stores were the other striking non-indigenous building in the colonial period.
Their design was basic, like Australian settler wattle and daub. Their
corrugated iron roofs descended to form a veranda overhang which was sometimes
ornamented with a small portico surmounted by a carved finial – a cock, a
temple dog or dragon.
Chinese
Trade Store in Auki, capital of Malaita Province – portico but no carved finial
They have been
replaced by bigger aluminium versions of which more later. The one pictured
below is the remaining example in Honiara’s Chinatown which was reduced to
ashes by rioting in 2006.
The
remaining wooden trade store in Honiara’s Chinatown. It is in the once popular
Sky Blue now supplanted by Pacific Blue
Prefabrication was
and is the fundamental principle of non-indigenous Solomons architecture. It
lends the notably generic quality to building in the country. It also suggests
the lack of care, commitment, responsiveness and imagination which are
distressingly evident in Solomons building. Imported steel frames clad in
aluminium are a sensible solution to the lack of local industry and the very
strong demands of local conditions (constant high humidity, cyclones and
earthquakes) but are deadening and soulless. This kind of architecture is a
symptom of postcolonial malaise: local impulses to build are thwarted by meagre
and expensive resources; the country, desperate for economic development
dependent on foreign investment, is not in a good position to make aesthetic
demands.
New mall under construction, central Honiara
The construction
of a new shopping mall next to Honiara’s important Central Markets is likely to
be an example. It will be in competition with those markets and may supersede
them (this is perhaps the local planning goal). The Central Markets as they are
seem like a remnant: they are a traditional market grown far too big in the
middle of a nation’s capital. To an outsider they are dirty (blood red betel
nut slaver everywhere, refuse) and dangerous (youth gangs up to no good, child
pickpockets). It will be difficult for the new mall not to take on these
qualities, especially as its raison d’être
is overwhelmingly commercial whereas the building will no doubt also function
as an important community and national site (many Solomon Islanders from other
provinces gather in the market). The building itself is not likely to inspire
community harmony and pleasure, nor national pride. The response to its
limitations is likely to be a very heavy security presence.
The blue canopy
lower right is a tunnel entrance. The ones outside the Central Markets are
supposed to allow safe pedestrian crossing of the nation’s most important road
Mendana Avenue, with its endless flow of traffic. Pictured below is one of a
pair of dummy ones deposited further along Mendana Avenue supposedly to
desensitise locals to their unencouraging presence. The dumped quality of these
structures speaks more eloquently against prefabrication than any written case.
Dummy tunnel portals
This need not be
the way things have to go.
Pre and post
national independence in 1978 there was a flurry of foreign building activity
both to establish commercial presences in the new nation and to encourage
relations with it through aid activity. Many of these seventies buildings were
adventurous in the manner of the period which was economically buoyant. A few
were fairly bizarre responses to the local environment.
Japanese-built
Anti Malaria Institute
This Japanese
building from this period appears to be recoiling before the possibility of
tsunami onslaught. Its present condition unfortunately suggests a style
inspired by the Second World War shipping wreckage which was such a feature of
particularly Guadalcanal coastlines. Rapid decay and wreckage are a tenet of
Solomons architecture. The old Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) building
at a salubrious distance along Mendana Avenue from the Central Markets had a
sandstone feature wall which became perilous after an earthquake. Bank building
in Honiara has been low slung and devoid of features since. A multi storey
student residence standing in isolation and at a distance from traffic passing
from the airport along Mendana Avenue was a testament to the generosity and
optimism of its donors but unfortunately had the aura of a Polanski set. It
appears to have been demolished to enable a local magnate to make his presence
obvious in an ordinary but extremely large mansion.
Parliament House is
a slightly bizarre mini version of Wellington’s Beehive. The most remarkable
things about it are: it is hidden away on the hill which backs the narrow strip
of coast which Honiara occupies; it is virtually unapproachable by foot (few
Solomon Islanders have cars), so steep is the road giving direct access to it.
This though did not stop drunken rioters from physically expressing their
discontent with their representatives outside it while their mates burnt
Chinatown.
The faith and hope
in the new nation by well-wishers dissipated as the corruption, venality and
incompetence which characterise public life in Solomon Islands rose. They were
replaced by interested interventions designed to garner Solomons support (for
whaling, for example), or international recognition for countries which had
trouble gaining it through normal channels (Taiwan), or in an attempt to secure
the region by calming this trouble spot (RAMSI).
Domestic
architecture on the Honiara hill is uninspired which is a pity as it is prime
real estate with views over town and on to Iron Bottom Sound. Some feature
alarming (given the tendency of the earth to slip away) slim concrete very high
skillions. Most nestle into the treacherous incline.
High cyclone wire
fencing encloses many holdings – security is an increasing problem as Honiara
moves ever closer to a Port Morseby style fortress mentality.
Cyclone wire security
Public space
interiors are either gracious tropical imports scattered with oversized
representations of Solomons artefacts (the three or four large hotels occupied
mainly by foreigners) or utilitarian with a token gesture such as artificial
flowers. There is a local tradition of furniture making and carving which the
Seventh Day Adventist Betikama boys training institution played a large part in
developing. The furniture style is naked function in heavy wood strongly joined
and yellowly high varnished. It is all angles and edges.
The curvaceous
found its place in carving run riot in mottled Kerosene wood (more uncommonly
and expensively in breath-taking ebony) sharks and other fishes, turtles,
eagles, canoes, warriors with beehive hairdos and Melanesian Maries with
pendulous breasts. This was largely for the tourist trade and might be
decorated with the inlaid mother-of-pearl chevrons which were a striking
feature of traditional carving. Individual expression did not seem to have been
much encouraged by the Seventh Day Adventists but those who escaped them
sometimes found their opportunities.
Caryatids
welcoming customers into a bar in the Western Province
There has been
some responsive building in Honiara. The influence of indigenous architecture
with its economical and lightweight materials (advisable in an earthquake zone)
can be seen in this ever-expanding hotel in Honiara.
King
Solomon Hotel Honiara
Many of the
traditional buildings we first examined had the advantage of expansion in mind.
This is a feature of residential Solomons architecture, driven by the demands
of wantoks (one talk – those who
speak your language and can claim kinship with you) who invade the lives of
particularly those living in Honiara and the provincial capitals, often for
very lengthy periods. It would be scandalous to deny them hospitality (we might
note this is also one of the challenges of Aboriginal housing). Also six
children are considered a suitable number (even though the demands of raising
them are a constant source of financial worry). Expandable residences, if
possible, might answer this demand.
Expandable
construction on the Honiara hill, far beyond the means of the ordinary citizen
Another
possibility for expansion is to create compounds of freestanding buildings
scattered over a holding. Characteristically these are now enclosed in cyclone
wire with a main gate manned by security. This possibility seems to have been
part of the attraction of a site previously occupied by the extraordinarily
spacious national art gallery and cultural centre. It was sold off and
converted and expanded into a luxury hotel complex. The other great attractions
besides sheer area of the site were its incomparable seclusion, centrality and
harbour side location. This national holding should probably not have been sold
off however it was under-utilised. Cultural inanition seems to be a symptom of
the postcolonial malaise which has infected the nation.
It will be
interesting to see how developments such as the one advertised below proceed.
They seem to be intended for expats only.
A sense of a national style informed the designs of the Bank South
Pacific branches and Telekom offices around the country. Their design is
inflected with that of traditional housing.
Bank
South Pacific branch
Solomons
Telekom – old colour
Solomons Telkom
has now opted for a new colour which unfortunately recalls the betel nut slaver
which is splattered everywhere on Solomons concrete and soil.
New Colour for Solomons Telekom offices
The country’s
preferred colour is now a light Royal Blue – Pacific Blue. It succeeded the Sky
Blue (now faded) of this prefabricated and extended post office. The Chinese
trade stores also once favoured this shade.
Pacific Blue alone
gives this Chinese trade store a Solomons character.
These
buildings have no charm beyond their endearingly kitsch names – Big Flower
Trading, Welcome Trading, Pretty Store, Lili Store ...
More
Pacific Blue. In this case being applied directly to the timber of an eco lodge
on remote Rennell Island
The country’s best
architecture has been reserved for its churches which speaks for the power of
Christianity in the Hapi Islands and the huge part it plays in its culture.
Unfortunately (in many ways) the influence of religion is waning with youth and
not notable in the lives of politicians and powerful business people who glory
in gambling, drunkenness and promiscuity. Muslim evangelists, unmistakable in
their robes, caps, beards and that air of militant self-righteousness they
share with many of their Christian counterparts are becoming very familiar
figures on the streets. It will probably not be long before the gold dome of a
mosque glows through the torrid air of Honiara.
The country is in
desperate need of an authentic architecture responsive to local physical and
economic conditions. Most of all it needs inspired architecture which will allow
Solomon Islanders to recognise themselves with respect. Some good building will
go a long way towards this. I suggest a cultural centre to replace the one sold
off – perhaps designed by Renzo Piano who did such an enchanting job on Le Centre Tjibaou in New Caledonia, or
better still a team of locals. And they need a football stadium to give
appropriate expression to their adoration of the game.
© Ian MacNeill
SOME GLIMPSES IN VERSE ...
Honiara
SOME GLIMPSES IN VERSE ...
from my Back Door - Choiseul Bay
Rubbish, not all burnt,
scraped and tossed
with slashed back bush, long grass
in a heap,
littoral trees (with coconut palms of course),
pale jade plate of lagoon
on which we sit
looking at the thin white border then
a margin of blue.
* * *
Children throwing stones for mangoes
dislodge green fruit
which crashes through branches
and yellow cicadas
fly croaking away.
* * *
The air of the Pacific
billows and falls
into your lungs
laden with sea and a sweetness
that smokes.
* * *
Yandina*, the end of April 1942
I can wander nearly alone for hours,
directed everywhere
by the ranks of palms to infinitudes of ranks amongst
almost verticals and perpendiculars implying a
resolution
curved at some remove.
It is hot
though the still palms waver shade
and dry
though there is a dazzle of water
trapped in some endless few of upturned husks.
Abandoned Native labour, lost in this order languish,
I suppose somewhere.
The reef, distant, whispers through the trunks
if you keep walking
you will step
suddenly over fallen fronds and nuts,
off little tripping weeds
onto excoriating sand,
the Trades will sigh over you,
you will also be relieved
by distances
but safe
lost in these evanescent depths,
is that the ghostly chug
of a Japanese barge
progressing the bay?
*Lever Brothers Yandina Plantation was the biggest
coconut plantation in the Solomon Islands. It still is.
* * *
Abandoned Coconut Grove
Its cathedral aisles
lead inwardly.
The productive now hosts
ferns and creepers.
The entering light is led too
along a multitude of naves radiating
into distances;
an apse, curving.
Where once there was nothing but rows and weeds
detritus softens fatal falls
from which some seed
not yet ancient
springs.
* * *
Visiting
sixteenth century Spanish after slaves, spices, gold,
Russians after tuna.
A new hotel or two every year.
An amoebic digesto-artery
pumping mini buses, the descendants of jeeps
metabolised by dust.
Honiara is a place for making something of -
satellite dish tv and video cinemas,
a job which pays.
Scandalous immersion quickly leads
to penances far away and knowing
down trodden paths.
It is so shallow, Honiara,
touched by every tide,
pushed occasionally against low ridges
which themselves tremble and slide.
* * *
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